Charity at ‘breaking point’ over pet cruelty

Convictions under the Animal Welfare Act rose by nearly a quarter last year, according to figures from the RSPCA.

It revealed that around 1,340 people were prosecuted for animal cruelty and neglect in 2011, a 23.5 per cent rise on 2010.

Shocking cases included a dog repeatedly stabbed with a potato peeler, a blind kitten found dumped in a carrier bag and a dog left in a house where five other animals had died of starvation, the charity said.

Some 1,100 people were banned from owning pets last year, while 74 prison sentences were handed out for animal cruelty.

The RSPCA warned that soaring numbers of cruelty cases had left the charity facing a funding crisis.

The charity’s chief executive Gavin Grant said: “The RSPCA faces a crisis that is stretching us to breaking point.

“We show zero tolerance to animal abusers. Anyone causing animals pain for profit or pleasure will be tracked down and prosecuted. We need the courts and councils, police and people who care to join us in standing up and getting justice for Britain’s abused animals.”

The RSPCA received more than 1.3 million phone calls last year, with 3,036 pet owners reported to its prosecutions department.

Sally Case, the RSPCA’s head of society prosecutions, said: “The RSPCA strives to keep animals with their owners wherever possible and offers advice on improving their welfare. Overwhelmingly, this advice is followed but where it isn’t or where someone has already harmed an animal, there has to be a way of ensuring that animals are not left to suffer.

“The RSPCA is the charity people turn to, and we are struggling to continue providing this service.”